Moideen Bava Getting Jittery due to my contest: Muneer Katipalla
Muneer Katipalla State president of DYFI is contesting the Mangalore North constituency as CPI(M) candidate. Mangalore north is considered as one of the communally sensitive constituency and it has garnered unusual attention due to the contest of Muneer Katipalla. Apart from CPM workers several supporters and sympathizers of Muneer are campaigning for him briskly. Muneer shot to fame due to his involvement with several struggles and agitations. Vartha bharathi spoke to him on his busy campaign trail.
VB: How is it going?
MK: Moving briskly. I am out by 7 am and return by 11 pm. till noon it is door to door visit and consultations with party workers. In the afternoon, I participate in Public rallies. In between I make a call to voters whom I know. By the way, we had covered the entire constituency even before the announcement of the elections. Now we are in to second round. We have already covered around 60% voters and we are confident that in the next one week we will reach the rest.
VB: How is the response of the voters?
MK: Much more than pour expectations. Wherever I go people are saying that I should be their representative; not only that they are contributing voluntarily to my election expenses. Most of them are unknown to Me.!!
VB: What do you think are the positive things?
MK: My struggle against MRPL has given me a kick start. Moreover the way I questioned the functioning of the present MLA, has caught the imagination of the people
VB: Who will find it easy due to your presence?
MK: Till now it was always a straight fight between Congress and BJP. Now it is triangular! Moideen Bava, the Congress candidate is getting jittery. On the other hand BJP candidate too is forced to pace its campaign. Both Congress and BJP were complacent till now, as they were sure of certain vote share due to communal polarization. Congress was sure that minorities will vote for it and BJP was sure of Hindutva votes. My contest has turned this calculation on its head. Instead of communal polarization, it is now a contest between 90% poor and 10% rich. So both these parties are spending huge money. And sweating it out day and night
VB: But there is a brisk campaign against you too:
MK: Yes, plenty. They are trying to confuse the voters by spreading canard like, Muneer has retired from the fray, voting for Muneer will make it easy for the victory of BJP . But I am not worried about that. Struggles and agitations have taught me a lot of lessons. I am just using it in my campaign.
VB: Is it likely that NOTA will be used here ...
MK: Initially there were some whispers about that possibility. ‘We want neither congress nor BJP’ was the refrain of the voters. They were talking of using NOTA. But Voters are no more talking about that. ‘You are the best alternative we found and we won’t use NOTA,’ voters are saying upfront. This has doubled my confidence and enthusiasm.
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Sharad Pawar praised RSS after seeing how it burst fake narrative balloon of LS polls: Fadnavis
Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."
